I need your help getting the word out regarding the US presidential elections

Alright folks, we’re going to do some of that collaborative citizen journalism you’ve heard so much about. I want to compile a short list of essential resources for people who need to register to vote, vote via absentee ballot, and, you know, vote normally. I’ve looked around at a few voter information sites and they are confusing, often too marketing-based, aren’t focused on presenting information clearly, or are too partisan/biased. I’m looking for the opposite: information, links, and resources that are clear, concise, nonpartisan, and above all, practical. The information is out there…it just needs to be presented properly.

Here are some areas I’d like to focus on:

- Deadlines and procedures for registering to vote. Is this list accurate? Is there a better source?

- Information for people voting via absentee ballots. How do they register? What are the registration deadlines? How do they get ballots? What are the procedures/deadlines for sending their ballots in?

- Regular voters…how do they find out where they should vote? Is there a easy-to-use polling place locator?

- Information about groups of people being discouraged to vote. I’m thinking specifically of recent reports of minorities being discouraged to vote by threatening them with arrest at the polls for unpaid parking tickets and the like (it’s a partisan example, but this issue affects all involved parties and is damaging to the whole system). Is there practical information for educating people about these tactics and their rights? The article says “many people were wrongly turned away when they could not produce identification”…do you need ID when you vote?

- Electronic voting - Is there anything people need to know beyond that it’s gonna suck? Are there Flash interfaces online where people can practice their vote? Do people have the option to vote on paper in some states? (Practical voter info only…I don’t care about Diebold lawsuits or anything like that.)

- Any other important issues?

So send me your links and information (or leave it in the comments) and I will compile everything, distill it down to the essentials, and write up an article which will be released into the public domain so anyone can distribute it however they wish. There will also be a compilation of all the relevent information I’m sent for people who want to dig deeper.

I don’t really have the time to do this and neither do you probably, but this is important and if you’ve got the knowledge, please consider helping out. Thanks.

This is a good idea. I registered by mail to vote in Washington, but haven’t received any kind of confirmation. The deadline is rapidly approaching. Should I register again? How can I find out if I’m registered?

The best political news site is Political Wire at http://politicalwire.com

I don’t disagree that an informed voter is a good thing, but this site has nothing practical to offer to this discussion…it’s all news about polls and Bush/Kerry/Rove/Nader. I’m looking for information about voting only. Who people vote for when they cast their ballots is a concern for another day. Please, stay on topic.

I liked President Match for helping understand the candidates.
Rock the Vote has a dumb name but has a state-by-state selector to help you register, see if you are eligible for an absentee ballot, etc.
Project Vote Smart also has the state-by-state selector. Select your state, and there is mucho info, including a link on the left to “Local Election Offices” that can narrow down who to call even further. Hope that helps.

Jason, something else to consider is voting methodology, including e-voting. I’m proud of the fact that Alabama has paper ballots that use OCR scanning—-the votes are counted electronically as they are cast, but there’s a paper backup in case of a problem or a question. I’m sure that there are other methods out there, but unfortunately for me, Alabama’s really the only state I’ve voted in.

I highly recommend Project Vote Smart (http://www.vote-smart.org). It’s probably one of the most complete political databases I’ve seen - everything from interest group ratings to campaign finances. Vote Smart is also non-partisan, which means it’s useful no matter which side of the fence you sit on.

I’m not about to endorse MTV here, but their Rock the Vote program is an excellent resource for voter information. You can even request for a voter registration packet (i think that’s what they are, i’m already registered) to be sent to you.

The registration deadline for Wisconsin is kind of wrong. To vote, you can register at your polling location up until polls close. All it takes is a piece of mail (something machine-printed with your name and current address like a bill or junk mail) and a driver’s license or state ID. If you decide to register by mail, the thing is correct.

Couple of reasons: first of all, our 50 state secretaries do not have any unified database for voter information. This is why they can’t track whether or not people are registered to vote in multiple states.

Second, polling place information is unstable. Redistricting happens continuously at a regional level, and within any given district polling places can be changed close to election day. As the availability of space and volunteers fluctuates, so too do the locations of polling places.

Although I recently moved to NYC, I’m still a registered voter for New Mexico (since I’m technically an NM resident still), which is great ‘coz an NM vote for NotBush/Edwards is worth WAY more than one in NY. I registered for absentee ballots as soon as I moved here but I have no idea if they received it (they just sent me a badly-xeroxed form which I promptly filled in and returned) and I also don’t know when I’m supposed to receive the materials by, since I’ve never done an absentee vote before. Is just under two months too early to start worrying?

It’s important for people to keep their voter registration cards they should receive in the mail after registering. In Alaska and the District of Columbia (as is my experience), the cards indicate your assigned polling place. Also, the individual states’ Division of Elections sites are good starting points…although some are better maintained than others (which I think is very unfortunate).

I’ve been checking www.electoral-vote.com almost daily. While it’s focus is on the latest poll results and how they affect electoral votes, the “votemaster” does a good job of discussing some of the same issues you’re bringing up — who’s not being counted, electronic voting, etc. He’s also got several resources listed for americans abroad.

Fluffy: My friend works on a political campaign in Abq NM. I, too, live in NY and am wondering what happened to my absentee application. I’ve asked my friend, and I’ll let you know if I learn anything.

I’m assuming you’ve seen the hideous declareyourself.com. I requested an absentee ballot there — they make it as easy as filling out a web form and then giving you a PDF to print out, complete with instructions for addressing the envelope. But oh god, oh god, is the design and layout hideous.

votergasm.org is an excellent (adult themed) site that has great little illustrated walkthroughs, if you haven’t seen it. Might not be what you’re looking for, but informative and humorous.

swingstatevoter.com is an excellent resource with step by step instructions — the caveat being that it is targeted at swing state reisdents voting absentee (particuarly college students).

By the way, most of the big voter registration sites are powered by the Election Impact voter registration/absentee voting system.

This is a great idea, kottke, and one that is really needed (and with some urgency! Most voter registration deadlines are in the next couple weeks.) I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what you come up with, and would be interested in doing any print/web design help you need (or, of course, just appropriating the CC licensed text to my own flyers once you’ve released it).

I’m voting absentee from Colorado and haven’t received anything in the mail either. I called the elections office & the lady there said it won’t be mailed until early October (the 2nd I think). I’m sure this varies by state & I haven’t seen anything on this topic online. The woman I talked to was very helpful and confirmed that she received my application. If you’re worried, I’d suggest finding your elections office phone number from one of the above sites & giving them a call.

I find that one of the biggest problems with most elections is the high number of competing claims in political ads and statements. FactCheck.org seems to be a reliable source of non-partisan information. They take statements in ads and speeches and compare them with the actual statistics.

Also, I would really like to know how to find a sample ballot online. I know each state has a different ballot with other important elections and initiatives on it, but I have trouble finding it online before hand. I’ve tried the league of women voters and NY State’s board of elections www.elections.state.ny.us/, but none seem to have sample ballots online. You would think knowing what you are voting on before you vote is a pretty basic part of voting…

http://www.justdemocracy.org/ “On Election Day, Just Democracy will mobilize a nationwide network of law school students to help 500,000 voters at 500 high-risk polling places exercise their rights and ensure that eligible voters are not wrongly turned away.”

Re: sample ballots - your best bet is to contact your county election department. I can provide links to some sample Texas ballots if you’re interested. Many counties may not have sample ballots for the upcoming 2004 election prepared yet.

Also, here are links to some videos explaining how to use the eSlate electronic voting machine, which is the popular model here in Texas. MPEG videos in English, Spanish & Vietnamese.

“This is a good idea. I registered by mail to vote in Washington, but haven’t received any kind of confirmation. The deadline is rapidly approaching. Should I register again? How can I find out if I’m registered?”

I’m with Dave on this one. I registered by mail in Texas. It’s been over a month, and I have received no confirmation. It sure would be nice to know whether I’m registered.

Well, one thing that I can’t help wondering is “why wouldn’t you need ID when you vote?” If an unidentified, undocumented human body goes into a booth and votes, how do you know he or she hasn’t done the same thing once, twice, or twenty times earlier in the day?

www.tellanamericantovote.com is a site that will send Americans overseas a ballot. It also seems that they can have “emergency write-in ballots” sent off if you have yet to receive your ballot fails to arrive.

Good luck dude. Anything you can do to bring democracy to the USA would be a Good Thing for the whole world. Bravo! (I speak from the Australian POV; voting is compulsory here, which emphasises that the franchise is as much a duty as a privilege; we’re also having elections shortly, but because they’re compulsory our systems are considerably more streamlined and debugged.)

in most states, the Office of the Secretary of State will maintain voting/polling location as well as most absentee ballot requests. The NASS site (National Association of Secretaries of State) maintains a list of election contacts for all states: http://www.nass.org/electioninfo/state_contacts.htm

If you’re in Texas, the deadline to vote in the upcoming election is Monday, 4 October - just over a week away. You can vote early in person during the very convenient early voting period - which runs weekdays from 17 days before the election and ends 4 days before. For those Texans who don’t even want to mess with a stamp, you can visit the the Secretary of State site and request postage-paid applications so you

http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/reqvr.shtml

The voter section of the SoS site has all of the information for Texas:

I registered to vote via absentee ballot by going to OverseasVote2004.com. I’m in Thailand and they had placed ads in the local English dailys saying “Register by September 15th!” which seemed to be the earliest cut off date for some states.

You go to OverseasVote2004.com and fill in your information — name, last time you voted, the country you voted in, etc — and then it gives you a PDF that you can print out with the necessary fields (that your particular state needs) filled in. For a couple of states apparently you need to then have them notorized, but not for Oregon which is where I’m registered.

One thing, the address I’m having the ballot sent to here in Thailand is a bit longer than a normal US address so when the form printed out the address was partially chopped off. I just filled it in again with a pen.

Signed the form, dropped it in the mail. Looking forward to receiving my absentee ballot soon.

- j

P.S. - I had had a question about the process and emailed them and they responded really quickly and were very helpful. It was an actual person responding (“Margo”) to me, not some automated listserv-bot… that was encouraging.

the question “do you need ID to vote?” confuses me. everyone eligible to vote gets exactly one vote, right? and the people in charge of the ballot boxes enforce this rule, right? so how could you vote without showing your ID and being crossed off a list?

apparently in the US things are a little different from austria. over here — mind you, this is a country known for civil servants who are lazy and unfriendly because they can’t be fired anyway — the info on where exactly you have to go to vote and who in the house is eligible is brought right to your home. but i’m not at home, so what do i do? i open the web site of my home town, fill out a little form and three days later mr. postman brings my absentee ballot. then i open the website of the city where i am, fill out another little form and it tells me which polling places are in my vincinity (i can use whichever one i like). when the day has come, i go to the one i chose and fill out another little form. this time, it’s on paper and nearly impossible to fuck up. super-easy.

but in the US, the government doesn’t put any useful information on how to vote online?

I think reading these comments proves Jason’s point: we need clean, concise information here. The voting system is a complete mess. Government has always been behind the curve with technology, but while they have picked up the pace in some areas (irs.gov for one), they have completely missed the boat on voting (why not vote.gov?). Local elections and elections-boards complicate the centralization of this data, but the federal-state-municipal system doesn’t seem to invoke the same chaos when it comes to law enforcement, taxes, or other issues as it does with voting. I’m starting to think the whole voting system must be revolutionized soon.

Last weekend I went to a poll monitor training in New York run by Election Protection 2004 (mentioned above) in conjunction with Impact 2004 (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/law/impact/) and others. Since their monitors will be spreading out across the country on election day, they gave us the sites to download absentee ballots for three local states:

NY - www.elections.state.ny.us
October 26 deadline to postmark application for ballot, November 1 deadline to postmark ballot (must be received by Board of Elections by November 9). You can also apply in person until November 1 and can hand-deliver a ballot to the board of elections on November 2 (election day).

CT - www.sots.state.ct.us/ElectionsDivision/Elecform.html
Ballot applications must be dropped off or mailed to the town clerk, whose offices are listed on the apllication; you can call 860-509-6100 to find the mailing address for your town clerk. They will have absentee ballots available starting October 1.

NJ - www.njelections.org/absentee_doe.html
Applications by mail must be received 7 days before the election; applications can be made in person until 3:00 PM November 1.

For other states, an internet search on “state name” and “board of elections” should bring up each state’s site.

Little plug: you can volunteer as a monitor at http://www.electionprotection2004.org/volunteer.htm

Best info and up-to-date is the above url. Voted
absentee last few years and don’t look back.
Can take my time, not have to worry about
where the polling place is, stand in line, etc.
The local libraries are a really great source
and it is so easy in Washington State to vote
absentee. Go for it.

A tip for those with dual citizenship—there is some sort of paperwork you must fill out before voting in a national election. I was unaware of this in 2000 and had to give up my Canadian citizenship in favor of voting (for a candidate who ended up losing—thanks, jeb! it’s a terrible irony). I’m no help, I still don’t know where the forms are to be found, or who they’re submitted to!

Rules on things like absentee voting may vary from state to state, so be careful.

One thing in New York — follow the directions carefully on absentees. Seriously, mark an X *inside* the box. Don’t write any message on your ballot, or even include a note inside your ballot envelope, because it can be disqualified.

Sounds dumb, but having been involved in several close election campaigns in my area, you’d be surprised how many people spoil their ballot.

Best thing to do is to go to your State board’s website and read up on all the details. You can call your local board of elections, but double-check whatever info they give you — incompetence is rife in some places.

Late to the game here, but I’ve got a couple of things to add. The deadline for registration in California is October 18 according to the Secretary of State’s web site, and there’s more info on that page. I would not recommend using their online form though, because first they mail it to you, then you have to mail it in. Instead, use something like Just Vote. Second, I started compiling a list of election-related resources a few days ago. It’s short but useful, http://del.icio.us/brainpipe/elections.

3. The FVAP page linked above is apparently back online for military users.

4. Just Vote has a polling place locator where you can enter your zip code. It seems to only find your county election office, but it provides a phone number and you can call them to find a polling place (usually pretty close to home).

The Sunshine State isn’t exactly known for getting it’s act together in regards to elections, so here’s a set of links primarily focused on the state of Florida in the hopes we’re not the laughing stock of the nation again, or suffer the wrath from another series of hurricanes next season.

Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer recently distributed Terrorist Warning Posters and requested that they be hung prominently in polling stations across the state. Governor Pawlenty requested the city councils in Minneapolis and St. Paul to reconsider laws that limit situations in which police officers can ask about a person’s immigration status. Pawlenty wants to empower police officers to ask any person, regardless of what they are doing at the time, for proof of legal status in the country.

Please note the timing of the actions by Pawlenty and Kiffmeyer. On a local, tactical level, the two initiatives raise a powerfully intimidating barrier to voting in the November 2 election. Nationally, they fit into a larger pattern of voter suppression activities by Republicans in swing states.

In Arizona, Flordia, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, and South Dakota armed police officers are investigating immigrants that file absentee ballots, the notorious florida voter purges are happening again, Posters are being distributed saying that all traffic tickets must be paid before voting, and many other resurrections of Jim Crow. The list is long and growing.

As the election nears, massive systems will be in play. Republicans who control state assets, law enforcement, immigration, data will manipulate them to exert pressure on demographics likely to vote for Kerry. It is a typical Republican strategy.

Changing the course of this is well beyond the control of the average citizen. But there is a solution: Vote. Vote in droves. If you have questions on any of the information you read or hear, ask. If you feel you are being suppressed, resist. If you have questions on how to register, ask. If you need a ride to the polls, ask.

the FEC has this list of registration deadlines —>
http://www.fec.gov/votregis/state_voter_reg_deadlines02.htm

here’s a national polling place finder —>
http://electionimpact.votenet.com/mfa/pollboothlocator.cfm

the state of Washington has a pretty comprehensive site at —>
http://vote.wa.gov

for those in King County not voting absentee, there’s a polling place lookup —> https://www.metrokc.gov/elections/pollingplace/birthday.aspx

(the rest of the site has links to explain absentee voting, etc. for King County)

for people looking to participate in the election, Music for America’s Voter X action guide is a good start (some of the less partisan links, above, are from this site) —>
http://www.voterx.com/action/list

(the rest of the site has links to explain absentee voting, etc. for King County)

—

for people looking to participate in the election, Music for America’s Voter X action guide is a good start (some of the less partisan links, above, are from this site) —>
http://www.voterx.com/action/list

Other info: Many states allow you to vote without registering beforehand, without ID or a home address, using a “challenged” ballot. You then have a certain period after the election to provide all the information required to make your vote legitimate. Information on challenged ballots is very difficult to find, however, and many election officials don’t know about them. As a sample, here are the voter rights for the state of Maine:
http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/right.htm

This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.